About Matt Kramer & Randy Montgomery

Matt Kramer Bio:

Born the son of a basketball coach on July 16, 1969, Matt Kramer spent his childhood in a gym by Dan Kamer's side watching him run the program at Archbishop Hoban High School in Akron (Ohio). Kramer went on to play at Hoban, graduating in 1987, then went on to a two-year career as an NCAA Division-III collegiate basketball player at The College of Wooster for legendary coach Steve Moore. After transferring to Mount Union College in the fall of 1989, he incurred a back injury that ended his playing career and sent him down a career path in coaching and education. Married to his wife Christine since 1996 and father of three—sons Luke and Landon, and daughter Olivia—Matt Kramer shares ideas and stories here that range from being inspirational to heart-breaking, illustrating the roller-coaster ride a twenty-one-year career in coaching can be.

After working for ten years as an assistant, the last seven of those as an upper-level assistant to the highly successful Henry Cobb at Canton South High School, Matt Kramer was hired into his first head-coaching position in the summer of 2000 by Navarre Fairless High School, where he initially found success as the leader of his own program. After his teams earned one conference championship (2002) and two second-place finishes (2001; 2003) in his first three seasons at the helm, Kramer's program at Fairless fell on hard times, forcing him to take an active role in rebuilding his own program from the ground up.

Committing to a special group of young players after a 3-19 finish to the 2003-04 season, Kramer nurtured his program from rock bottom to the State of Ohio's Division-II “Sweet-16” in 2007 when his team won the prestigious Canton Division-II District Championship Game with one of the most compelling final nine seconds of an overtime in the annals of high school basketball. The next season, his 2007-08 Fairless team followed up with a 17-5 record, leading to an opportunity for Coach Kramer to return home as the head coach at Canton South High School—the place where he had served seven years as an apprentice to his mentor Henry Cobb.

If the journey at Fairless served as the perfect example of hard work and the best-laid plans leading to success, then the Canton South experience shows how nothing in life is guaranteed. Now in the 19th year of his career as an English teacher, Matt Kramer is serving as an assistant to his co-author, mentor, and close friend, Randy Montgomery, at North Canton Hoover High School as he waits for his next opportunity to lead a program.

Randy Montgomery Bio:

A Hall-of-Fame high school basketball coach, and a disciple and close friend of West Virginia University head coach Bob Huggins, Randy Montgomery has spent over three decades using his innovative approach to lead two high school programs—Wooster Triway and North Canton Hoover—to elite status.

After three seasons as an assistant on Coach Huggins' first staff at Walsh College, Montgomery spent his first 19 years as a head coach leading his program at Triway to a 343-95 record, twelve straight conference championships, six District Championships, and two trips to Ohio's Final Four (1988; 1991). In 2002, he accepted the job at North Canton Hoover High School where he led his 2004 team to a 20-0 record and the State of Ohio's Division-I AP Poll Championship, earning him his second Ohio Coach of the Year Award (1991).

In The Best-Laid Plans of a High School Basketball CEO, Randy Montgomery shares many of the ideas, methods and stories that have led to his hall-of-fame career and more.

A 1978 graduate of Youngstown State University—where he played basketball and baseball—Randy Montgomery has built a dynamic career while keeping family the number one thing in his life. Married to his wife Becky in 1985, Montgomery is the father of three daughters—Annie (24), Erin (21) and Leigh (18). Over the years, basketball has been woven firmly into the family fabric, as “a night out” has often centered around one of Randy's games, and even family vacations include a basketball stop along the way.

One of those stops for Randy and Becky Montgomery was the home of legendary UCLA coach John Wooden in the summer of 1995. The Montgomery's met Coach Wooden through a mutual friend, 1968 Cy Young Award winning pitcher Dean Chance, who is from Wayne County, Ohio—where Montgomery spent the first 19 years as a head coach. Coach Wooden became close friends of Randy and Becky Montgomery over the years and a major influence on Randy's coaching career—at the heart of that influence was the affirmation that family should be the most important thing in a coach's life.

The support of his family has enabled Randy Montgomery to earn the 500-plus career victories, sixteen league titles, seven district titles, two trips to the State of Ohio's “Final Four”, two Ohio High School Coach-of-the-Year Awards, and all of the special moments that have come during his hall-of-fame career.